Take a stroll through Treptower Park and you can suddenly find yourself facing this incredibly large and impressive Soviet Memorial. It is the largest of 3 Soviet memorials built in Berlin and it is beautiful.

The memorial sits between two large entrance gates (as seen above) surrounded by weeping willows and beautiful tall trees framing the stones.

Designed by the Soviet architect Yakov Belopolsky, the memorial opened 4 years after the end of World War II in 1949. At one end is a giant, 12m statue of a Soviet soldier holding a sword and carrying a German child over a broken Swastika. The statue was designed by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchtich whose inspiration came from the Soviet soldier Nikolai Masalov, who in 1945, found a German girl lost during the Battle of Berlin, near Potsdamer Platz and bought her to safety. If you walk up the steps in front of the statue, you will find a small room underneath that is lined with small mosaics (see photos below.)

The Soviet War Memorial was created to the approximately 80,000 Soviet soldiers who fell during the Battle of Berlin (April - May 1945). The 100,000 square meters memorial also serves as a cemetery for 5000 of those fallen soldiers.

16 stone blocks line the sides of the memorial featuring carvings of military scenes and quotations from Joseph Stalin. On one side, the quotations are in Russian, on the other, they are in German.

At the opposite end of the giant statue, you will find two large entrance gates featuring stylised Soviet flags with marble recovered from Hitler's demolished Reich Chancellery. In front of them you can find two large kneeling soldiers. Walk through the gates and you will find a statue of the 'Motherland' wheeping at the loss of her sons.

You can't help but feel amazed and affected when visiting this memorial. It overtakes the land on which it lays and is really awe-inspiring. Below you can find more photos from our visit and a map of where you can find the memorial to check it out for yourself.